Hub Vacations

I joined HubPages in early October 2011. By mid-April 2012 I had published 258 Hubs that included several book-length good quality Hubs, and a whole variety of other published Hubs which had generated almost the coveted 10,000 readings (9,880), gained 253 followers and 1,534 comments.

My then current rating was a 90 with a running Hub Score of 61 (which I attributed primarily to having written many Haiku poems and other poetry which typically draw lower Hub Scores.)

As for Hub Feedback, my Hubs had received the following votes:157 Useful, 45 Funny, 215 Awesome, 203 Beautiful, and 269 Interesting for a total of 889.

Fan mail had provided 81 greatly appreciated affirmations that I was indeed doing something right which had meaning enough for others that they sent me the fan mail

I had posed questions and provided answers which had meaning to me, and had received welcomed answers to almost all of mine, while wondering why some Hubbers pose questions which are easily and authoritatively answered by a quick Google/Bing/Etc. search, or a simple "Yes" or "No" answer. I had commented at least once on 860 Hubs, and I had sent private email comments with suggestions to other Hubbers I felt might appreciate a private comment.

I was ready for a "Hub Vacation", and I had amassed enough information for make it meaningful.

As Ernest Hemingway answered the question as to "What do writers do?", the fact is that "Writers write." It is so easy and satisfying to spend hours and hours every day writing, and HubPages makes it pleasurable to do so, for all of the reasons seen clearly by my statistics. Almost equally satisfying is to read the Hubs of other Hubbers who enjoy writing.

Sadly, for as many of us who love to write, the percentage of us who make a "good additional income" by doing so, is about the same percentage as the percentage of high school football players who go on to play football in the NCAA's Division I. The percentage who earn a decent "living wage" from their writing, is similar to the percentage of those Division I players who go on to have meaningful careers in the National Football League.

It is clear from those statistics that for most of us writing is more likely to be a satisfying hobby than a fulfilling career based on our earnings from writing alone.

A "Hub Vacation" allows for putting our activities on HubPages in perspective and allows for making sure that no other important aspect of our daily lives is suffering because we love writing and publishing.

I have purposely used my time on HubPages to get my material and skills (such as they are) published and available for two stepping stones forward. The first is for my search for a literary agent who might work as willingly for me as I work for my writing. The second is for the ultimate goal of having some of my writings published through the agent or otherwise, so as to break through to possibly earning a "good additional income."

If you aspire to be a freelance writer/author, then a body of work readily available on HubPages, where it is accessible to potential agents, publishers, clients, and employers is a wonderful asset.

When you have accomplished that much and have such a goal, I suggest you might want to take a "Hub Vacation" and put those efforts to work for you, while also assessing any important areas of your life you may have been neglecting while enjoying the joy of writing on HubPages.

Come back refreshed and ready to write and publish more, but I suspect you will be a better writer and person for having taken a short "Hub Vacation."

© 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.